As described in the video, after 4 months of age most babies have a prolonged period of sleep and then wake up every couple of hours because of sleep cycle changes. Development: Developmental milestones shift and change sleep.And although most studies have evaluated a mother’s role in overnight awakenings, a 2010 Tel Aviv study found that when fathers were more involved in infant care (day and night), in addition to mothers, their babies had fewer overnight awakenings. The more parents camp out (remain in the room until baby is asleep), the more parents transfer the baby into the crib after asleep, and the more they picked the baby up at night, the more likely the baby has sleep challenges. Studies have found that infant sleep disorders are affected by how many times a parent comforts them at night. Mom or Dad’s Role At Night: Studies have evaluated how parents can change an infant’s sleep.The evidence to support long-term damage from crying at night is nil.” Many pediatricians recommend letting your baby gradually learn to self-soothe or cry-it-out once they have self-soothing skills (turning over, sucking on fingers or hand, and more mobility) starting somewhere around 4-6 months of age. Dr Chen says, “We don’t think that some crying is bad for a baby. I’ll not delve into much of the debate here, but if you’re worried that letting your baby cry-it-out will damage them, try to relax. Crying Is Part Of Being A Baby: There is a pretty serious ongoing debate and national dialogue between parents, psychologists, pediatricians, lactation consultants, and scientists about letting babies cry-it-out versus not cry-it out.These associations can cause a good sleeper to have bad sleep, because of the habit. Then, when they have awakenings at night, they may cry out to have those associations (bottle, nursing, or rocking to sleep) to get back to sleep. Some babies make habitual associations like always nursing to sleep, always being rocked to sleep, or always being held to fall asleep. Most of that has to do with consistency from one night to the next. ” Our job as parents is to do the best we can in creating good sleep habits. But there are also good sleepers with bad habits. Dr Chen reminded me, “ There are good sleepers and there are bad sleepers. “Good Sleepers” Versus “Bad Sleepers”: Some babies are just better sleepers right out of the gate.But by 6 months of age, the baby’s brain wave patterns will look much like an 18 year-olds.” That being said, once some babies are awakened during transitions, they may call out for your help unlike an 18 year-old! Dr Chen says, “If you look at sleep studies on newborns and infants, they will look very different compared to older children. As Dr Chen explains, “When doing sleep studies we follow brain wave activity.” After 6 months of age she says, “We see brain waves at 6 months of age and up that are similar in pattern to that of adults.” Now that doesn’t mean that babies that wake throughout the night have abnormal brain waves, but it does mean as they progress through infancy, they get more and more mature when it comes to sleep. Brain Waves: The majority of babies are really capable of sleeping for a prolonged 6+ hour period of time 1/2 way through infancy, around 6 months.The trick for parents is to do less and less as each month of infancy unfolds during these awakenings we want to help our babies self-soothe more and more independently (without our help) during these awakenings so that sleeping through the night becomes a reality. This is normal, and often due to development of delta wave sleep (deep sleep). At 4 months of age, many parents notice awakenings after a first chunk of deeper sleep. However, most adults wake up and then fall back to sleep so rapidly that we rarely remember the awakening. It’s normal for babies (and adults) to wake 4-5 times a night during these times of transition. In that transition, many babies will awaken. As babies move from one stage of sleep to another during the night, they transition. The different wave patterns our brains make during certain periods define these sleep cycles or “stages” of sleep. Sleep Cycle: Babies wake up during the night primarily because their brain waves shift and change cycles as they move from REM (rapid eye movement) sleep to other stages of non-REM sleep.I’ll author a follow-up blog on ways you can help your baby when they wake up, too. Leave questions and comments below if we can explain more. I spoke with my friend Dr Maida Chen, a pediatric pulmonologist, mother to three, and director of the Pediatric Sleep Disorders Center to put a list together regarding why babies do this. There are scientific reasons and some developmental and behavioral explanations for these awakenings. And although some superhero babies sleep 10-12 hours straight starting around 3-4 months of age, most infants wake up during the night and cry out for their parents.
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